Cody Mills ’20, JonDavid Nichols ’20 and Zie Medrano ’20 won the Class of 2020 Student Assembly special election Friday, Nov. 2. SA held the special election in response to the resignation of Sen. Abhi Chadha ’20, Sen. Clare DaBaldo ’20 and Sen. Sarah MacPhee ’20, who are unable to remain in SA as they will be studying abroad next semester.
Out of the 961 students who voted, Mills received 176 votes for a total of 18.31 percent of the vote, Nichols received 131 votes for a total of 13.63 percent of the vote and Medrano received 123 votes for a total 12.8 percent of total votes.
Angela Tiangco ’20 fell two votes short with 121 votes, or 12.6 percent of the total vote. Nick Thomas ’20 received 113 votes for a total of 11.76 percent of the vote. Caroline Garman ’20 received 101 votes for a total of 10.51 percent of the vote. Alicia Draper ’20 received 85 votes for a total of 8.84 percent of the vote. Maddie Talnagi ’20 received 66 votes for a total of 6.87 percent of the vote. Jaret Anderson ’20 received 45 votes for 4.68 percent of the total votes.
Samuel Towler ’20 and Liz Holmes ’20 dropped out of the race before election night.
Although she was not elected, Angela Tiangco ’20 was endorsed by SA President Brendan Boylan ’19 on his Facebook page.
In a written statement on his Facebook page, Mills focused his campaign on the mental health of LGBTQ students, particularly the mental health of transgender students, as well as improving the Freestanding Emergency Call Boxes or the “blue light” system and increasing menstrual product access on campus.
Much of the campaigning for class of 2020 seats was done through social media and posting flyers. The official SA Facebook page did not share information about the class of 2020 candidates. SA also encountered technology problems on the day of the election.
Class of 2020 President Kelsey Vita ’20 informed the 2020 student body via email that multiple students had difficulties accessing their ballots on TribeLink for the special election. In response, SA asked students encountering the issue to send the names of the three candidates they wished to vote for through an email to SA Elections Commission Chair Sarah Baker ’19.
Nichols centered his campaign around student’s personal interests and assisting students in finding their community. Prior to his election as senator for the class of 2020, Nichols served as secretary of student life for SA, a position appointed by Boylan and SA Vice President Samir Tawalare ’19. To fill Nichols’ vacancy, Boylan and Tawalare will have to appoint a new secretary of student life.
The newly elected senators will be sworn into office Tuesday, Nov. 6. Throughout the semester, resigning senators Chadha, DaBaldo and MacPhee will act in transitional roles. This will include teaching the new senators the language and procedures used in SA so that they can become active, participatory members as soon as possible.
